Unearthed Treasure Read Online Free Page A

didn’t mean she relaxed her guard around him. Not ever.
    Chelsea paused a few feet away from the three men. She tilted her chin and placed her hands on her hips. David stood directly behind her elbow, only a tiny distance behind her, clearly showing she was in charge, but that he supported her fully.
    Tension crackled in the air as they silently faced off.
    Not wanting to make this a staring contest or a battle of wills for who could remain silent the longest, she shrugged her shoulders and decided to get on with things.
    “Well?” she said sharply, her tone cutting through the air like a knife. “What the hell were you thinking? I assume that bloody rocket launcher was courtesy of you, Thaddeus. Do you realise, had you been a minute or two earlier, I’d have still been out front and you could have killed me? How, then, would you have got access internally into the Gallery? Or any new roster changes of the security shifts?”
    Thaddeus grinned at her, a mocking, eager look crossing his face. His expression made Chelsea worry.
    “I guess that’s all moot now anyway, since every cop in central London is probably crawling over the area. Were you really trying to kill me? Or worse—have me arrested. I’ve only been on loan to the Gallery two months, I haven’t activated any of my deletion or encryption files as yet, nor any of the fail safes I’ll point out I spent months carefully inserting to remove all our tracks. If the police have enough wits they’ll put it together sooner or later and I’ll need to find myself a new identity. That shit costs dearly, you realise that, right?”
    Chelsea drew herself taller, straightening her spine proudly and stared at Kent. She gauged that now was the time to remain silent since she’d said her opening piece. Kent’s warm smile unsettled her. Her stomach rolled uneasily though she kept any such fear from her face.
    If he’s going to shoot me in the face or the gut now will be the time, she guessed in a flash of intuition.
    Bracing herself, Chelsea held her ground, her chin tilted, her body tensed for the potential impact. Although she was quite worried, she refused to show even a smidgen of fear.
    Phillipe burst out laughing.
    The tension snapped, dissipated as if it had never been present in the first place. Phillipe clapped his hands together like a chortling goblin, anticipating his next nasty spell.
    “Damn but you’re gorgeous when you’re angry. Your eyes snap this blue fire and your face flushes like a woman about to reach climax. It really is a sight to behold.”
    Relief had her tone lessening some of its bite, but she didn’t have to pretend to still be seriously annoyed. That emotion was all too real.
    “So there’s a reason—other than seeing me mad, I mean—that you blew the hell out of the Gallery almost eight hours earlier than we’d planned?”
    “Of course, Chelsea,” Phillipe soothed her. He thrust his hands into the pockets of his coat and relaxed his posture. “I kept you in the dark because I didn’t know I could trust you.”
    Fully expecting far more of an explanation than that cryptic sentence, Chelsea waited. When he said nothing further she waved a hand, gesturing for him to continue.
    “That’s it? Sorry I almost killed you, sorry we set every cop in the city racing to you, but it was a test?”
    “I’ve worked with Thaddeus here and Luke on a number of other operations. I trust them. I know their strengths, weaknesses, where they can stand firm and what will make them crack. I only have Lawrence’s assurances that you’re reliable and good at what you do. Now, I trust Lawrence, he’s never failed to connect me with the perfect partner for my crews yet, but I wasn’t born yesterday. There’s a certain reticence when such an important job means using someone I’ve never worked with before.”
    “That and the fact that you insisted on bringing in silent boy over there,” Thaddeus added thickly, his tone showing disdain for